The Auburn Desolation is a forsaken waste of treacherous sand and unbearable heat within the Shadowfell. Gloom-wrapped serpents and foul undead haunt the wastes, striking out at unsuspecting travelers from sandy graves. Pgs. 88-95

Important: The adventure is 1e but it has monster conversion notes for D&D 4th edition The town of Highport, once a human community overlooking Wooly Bay from its perch on the northern coast of the Pomarj, fell prey to hordes of humanoids swarming out of the jungle-covered hills surrounding the settlement. Though the orcs, goblins, kobolds, ogres, and gnolls razed much of the place in their ferocious rampages, the smoldering ruins they left behind soon became a new kind of community, a place of trade between the humanoid “locals” and the unsavory human traders who have no compunction about doing business with them. Slaves are a commodity in ready supply in Highport’s market, since many pirates raid up and down the coast of the bay, putting fishing villages to the torch and filling their holds with captured refugees. Slavery has become a thriving business in the town, and rumors abound of a cartel of Slave Lords who run things from behind the scenes, filling their coffers in secret from the buying and selling of human chattel. The trade has become so prolific that the good folk to the north have grown tired of these depredations and decided to fight back. Forces of righteousness and honor have recently descended upon Highport, some openly and others in secret, in various attempts to destroy the machinations of the Slave Lords and abolish the abominable enterprise that has taken far too many loved ones from home and hearth. One such doughty servant of goodness is Mikaro Valasteen, a cleric of Trithereon. Mikaro slipped unnoticed past the crumbling walls of Highport with a single mission: to rescue and transport as many slaves to their freedom as possible. Mikaro and a handful of faithful assistants located a number of escaped slaves—as well as rescued a few more not sufficiently restrained and guarded—and shepherded them through the gates and beyond the reach of their humanoid tormentors, returning them to their lands and homes. This covert freedom brigade enjoyed remarkable success early on, since the servants of the Slave Lords were often lax in their vigilance and sloppy in their efforts to prevent loss of the “merchandise.” After one too many shipments never made its destination, the humanoids stepped up their security and the normal channels of escape from Highport closed to Mikaro and his team. He cannot risk exposure by smuggling the freed slaves through the gates as merchandise any longer, since shipments of goods are now regularly stopped and checked. No longer able to free the slaves in that manner, Mikaro began hiding his charges in an abandoned villa in a particularly rundown part of the town. Although they are safe for the moment, their numbers have grown unmanageable, and the priest fears it is only a matter of time before someone slips up and brings slavers to their doorstep. Ever more desperate to find a new means of escape from Highport, Mikaro has started work on a plan that is both daring and dangerous. He intends to use a series of old sewers coupled with natural caverns running beneath the town as an escape route to the sea beyond the walls. But he needs someone to clear out the creatures and pitfalls he knows lie within. Pgs. 2-27

A slaver gang known as the Bloodreavers are terrorizing the countryside from their base deep in the labyrinth under Thunderspire Mountain. But these slavers are only the symptom of a larger threat in the bowels of Thunderspire.

A dwarven expedition has stopped in Mulmaster for much-needed supplies. Furgis Boltsmelter, their founder and leader, is looking for some “no questions asked” protection for the duration of his stay in the city. Whatever he is trying to protect may not stay hidden for long. Can you keep his secret treasure out of the wrong hands? A four-hour adventure for 1st-4th level characters.

The Bloodhand orcs have a prisoner that may hold the answers to the strange goings on and the key to stopping the enemy. What can you do to convince them to hand the prisoner over? Part Twelve of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts.

Into the Forsaken Temple's Crypt is a short adventure for four 10th-level characters. The adventure takes place in a buried temple crypt, which has been sealed for centuries. Dungeon Masters can adjust it for higher-level characters by expanding the dead magic areas and increasing the number and power of constructs and undead that inhabit the complex. Some things are best left untouched, and some secrets are best left untold. One such secret is the location of the resting place of the traitor Ellowyn Blacktree. Her body has lain undisturbed for centuries, undead but immobile, in the prison the elves created for her. The elven histories tell that Ellowyn was a powerful wizard back in a time beyond human reckoning. While others worked diligently to learn magic, Ellowyn's arcane powers came to her quickly. In her youth, she called this a blessing from Corellon Larethian, and she worked diligently to serve him for the good of all elvenkind. In time, she became one of seven female elves entrusted with the care of a mythal, or elven place of power, devoted to preserving the balance of magic and nature. But Ellowyn, it is said, kept a terrible secret of her own: She had fallen in love with a drow whom history knows as Orith To'rellen. One dark winter night she betrayed her sisters, Corellon, and all of elvenkind by allowing Orith and the followers of Lolth to overrun and defile the mythal. Ellowyn herself was then betrayed by the drow, who abandoned her on the surface near a vampire's lair as they returned to their home in the Underdark, leaving her to face certain death and elven justice alone. In the depths of their grief and anger, the elves sentenced Ellowyn, perhaps unwisely, to dwell forever in the darkness that she had chosen, thus ensuring that she never followed the normal path of life and death that most elves take. Many elves died at her hands before they could restrain her. With terrible spells rarely seen even in that ancient time, they bound her in an underground crypt far away from any living thing. There, the legends say, she waits, nursing a terrible hatred against elves, drow, Corellon, Lolth, and especially Orith To'rellen.

A nest of vampires has claimed a dark forest and the surrounding human towns as its domain. Some of the local residents revere the vampires and serve as daylight guardians and spies. However, most of the townsfolk live in a state of dread. Those townsfolk have finally scavenged enough valuables to hire a band of adventurers to destroy the nest. Pgs. 66-71

Don't Get Burned! Follow a half-forgotten legend to treasures untold and a fiery doom. Pgs. 30-41

The couatl Tlanextic saved the village of Pearlglen from a terrible plague many years ago, and now he has returned. But why is he hiding in an abandoned temple in the woods instead of working in town, the way he once did? And what exactly is the threat to the village this time? Does the mysterious death of the town's chief warden at the bony hands of skeletons have anything to do with it? Download this new adventure by Skip Williams and give your PCs a bit of detective work to do to find out what's really happening in Pearlglen. The scenario is set in a forested area, and the action takes place in the village of Pearlglen and a nearby, half-ruined temple. As always, feel free to adapt the material presented here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign.

Ten years ago, zombies arose from the foamy sea to take vengeance against the inhabitants of Firewatch Island. Now, they have risen again, just in time to welcome the visiting player characters! Will your heroes manage to escape the island with their lives (to say nothing of their delicious brains)? The PCs have to clear the island and learn its secrets, then defend it against an undead attack and then travel to the bottom of the ocean to seal Dagon's Maw! Pgs. 19-50 Updated to 5th Edition in Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Long ago, a small but mighty humanoid kingdom existed in what is now the local wilderness. Bugbear and ogre warriors fought brutal wars of expansion, earning great fame and amassing considerable fortunes from their predations. Those who died in battle were buried in large tomb complexes dug into hillsides and honored as patrons of the living. Among these tombs was the large tor known as Hightower. Though it was neither the largest nor the most famous of the kingdom's tombs, Hightower did represent a typical example of this kind of structure. As happens to all such nations, the cruel humanoid kingdom eventually fell to a more powerful foe that razed all its cities and outlying fortifications. Of the tombs, only Hightower escaped destruction -- largely because it was an unimportant monument in a remote location. A few tribes of humanoids that survived the devastation tried to use it as a fortress, but the humans with whom they clashed defeated them soundly and sealed the entrance with a huge, round stone to ensure that the tor could no longer be used as a base. Since then, Hightower has served as a landmark for travellers in the know, but it has otherwise been largely forgotten. But the electrical storms that have plagued the area in recent days have been quite severe, and a few weeks ago, a stray lightning bolt broke open the stone seal. Tonight, yet another terrible storm is sweeping through the wilderness, driving all creatures to take shelter where they can find it. Hightower looms on the horizon, and its door is no longer blocked. Will the PCs dare to enter its silent halls?

Elanil Elassidil, an elf bard of no small legacy, has put out a call for trustworthy agents. It is time, it seems, for a quietly hidden piece of elven history to become known to the world. Meira Faerenduil, lost knight of Myth Drannor, has been dis-covered, and must be brought back to civilization. A four-hour adventure for 5th-10th level characters. **NOTE** As of August 30th this adventure no longer grants an Oathbow in Adventurers League play. It has been changed to award a +2 Longbow per the Adventurers League Content Catalog.

A Book of Books Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of adventures written by members of the Dungeons & Dragons community. Each adventure begins with a book that the characters find in Candlekeep, an enormous library located on the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms setting. If you're not running a Forgotten Realms campaign, you can adapt the adventures in this book for other settings, substituting any large library similar to Candlekeep. Examples from other published D&D settings include the following: On the world of Exandria, the Soltryce Academy in Rexxentrum (a large city on the continent of Wildemount) or the Cobalt Reserve in Westruun (a small city on the continent of Tal'dorei) On the world of Eberron, the Library of Korranberg in the nation of Zilargo, the University of Wynarn's library in the nation of Aundair, or Morgrave University's library in the city of Sharn On the world of Oerth, the Great Library in the Free City of Greyhawk Contains: The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions Book of the Raven A Deep and Creeping Darkeness Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme The Price of Beauty Book of Cylinders Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor Lore of Lurue Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion Zikran's Zephyrean Tome The Curious Tale of Wisteria Vale The Book of Inner Alchemy The Canopic Being The Scrivener's Tale Alkazaar's Appendix Xanthoria

Your PCs are reaching the upper end of the heroic tier. New worlds are opening up to them—they might have already ventured to the Feywild, for example, and made contacts with inhabitants of that magical plane. Now they are ready to take their first steps into the darkness. The Shadowfell awaits... Vandariel, a shadar-kai witch who calls herself the Voice of Pain, is a fanatic devotee of the Raven Queen. She has founded and become the self-proclaimed high priest of a bizarre cult, the Lords of Pain, whose purpose is to bring more fey into the shadow pact with that goddess of death. Although the original shadar-kai entered this pact voluntarily, and the race breeds true, Vandariel is consumed by what she sees as a divine mission to reveal the mystery to all fey—whether they wish it or not. Those who do not come voluntarily to the truth are brought against their will. Dark stalkers move like the night, seeking out and abducting suitable subjects. This Side Trek can serve as an introduction to the dangers of the shadow realm. It works well for PCs who are approaching the paragon tier, since it presents a reasonable challenge for characters of 10th level. It is suitable as a climactic encounter for lowerlevel adventurers, as well. It consists of only two encounters.

“The Temple Between” is an adventure for 9th level characters, and it is challenging enough to take them to 11th level by the time all is said and done. Although intended as the final chapter of the heroic tier portion of the Scales of War Adventure Path, it can be run as a standalone adventure, or as an adventure in a campaign of your own making, with a small degree of modification. It contains elements of urban investigation, dungeon delving, and even wartime conflict, making it a suitable adventure to players of many tastes and preferences. The western end of Elsir Vale has been greatly troubled in recent days. The threat of the orc hordes from beyond the Stonehome Mountains, though turned back at Bordrin’s Watch, still lingers in the people’s minds. Peculiar and hostile creatures of shadow lurk in the caverns and caves below. Political squabbling grows among the city’s powerful dwarf clans. All this makes the city particularly vulnerable to an enemy nobody saw coming - that nobody even imagined. This enemy has goals and objectives far beyond the ultimately unimportant Elsir Vale, but the first step is the utter subjugation of Overlook. An enemy who, at least in part, is already here. In this adventure the player characters start by investigating the strange behavior of the city's clergy. They swiftly discover hints of a conspiracy worming its way through the city hierarchy - some members are possessed while others have been replaced by dopplegangers. After trailing this conspiracy to its source they discover a portal that leads to an ancient temple in the mountains. Using the portal, the PCs go to the abandoned ancient temple where they must confront both a cadre of fey and a band of mercenaries, from whom they learn there is a plot for a full-scale invasion of the region! The PCs must them rush back to Overlook and cement their place as heroes as they face off against the invading forces. Pgs. 4-71

The Approaching Swarm is a short adventure for four 9th-level characters. The party can consist of any mix of classes, but it should include at least one character that is good in wilderness settings, such as a druid, ranger, or barbarian, and at least one cleric. This scenario should prove a reasonable challenge for characters from 8th to 10th level. The adventure takes place in a swampland that is near a small settlement. A band of rag-tag settlers have carved out a small settlement, called Crivdall, on the edges of a great swamp that is infamous for its terrible creatures. The area is rich with resources, and the settlers have done well hunting and foraging in the swamps. Unbeknownst to them, however, an insane druid has taken notice of their transgressions and wants them to leave. The druid, Aleretheral, is a half-orc with a curious affinity for insects and vermin. The swamp is home to numerous breeds of monstrous insects, some of which the druid has begun to breed to make them even larger and more aggressive. Through his abilities, Aleretheral has set enormous vermin onto the helpless settlers, preying on them as they venture into the swamp. With autumn rapidly coming to a close, the settlers are becoming desperate as more of their numbers are killed by hordes of marauding vermin.

A four-hour adventure for 5th-10th level characters. The enemy is revealed, but time short and if you are not successful in your mission to Mount Baratok, love will never die. Part fourteen and the finale of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts. In an effort to locate the evil witch Esmae Amarantha, the party must work to enable a tarot card reading by Jeny Greenteeth, a quixotic hag. However, finding casters to aid Jeny in her ritual is its own ordeal, and even if they succeed, there is still the task of venturing to Esmae's ritual site and putting a stop to her plans.

The Soldiery has grown weary of dealing with a particularly nettlesome band of miscreants who have holed up in the Flooded Forest to the south. And so, you have been called upon to quell their activities so that trade along the North Road can resume unmolested. However, in so doing, the truth behind their activities reveal that much more than simple banditry is at hand. Will you be able to stop it?

In Heart of Nightfang Spire, the player characters are drawn to investigate Nightfang Spire, a lonely stone tower in a barren land. The vampire lord Gulthias, servant of the great dragon Ashardalon, has returned to the tower which was once the main cult temple of Ashardalon. The vampire prepares for the dragon's return by awakening the other cultists who had preserved themselves as undead creatures. Gulthias is a vampire and a level 13 wizard.

A Giant Ransom is a short adventure for four 11th-level characters. There are opportunities for diplomacy, stealth, and combat, based on the choices the PCs make, so any mix of classes is appropriate. The adventure can be set in any campaign world, in a frontier region near glacier-covered mountains. In the story thus far, the PCs have been tasked by Duke Ambrinigan, a local lord, to recover a stolen statue of a golden lion. The lion was stolen in transit by frost giant raiders, and was to be ransomed back to the Duke for 10,000 gp. The PCs were sent to perform the exchange. The giants, however, were attacked by the white dragon Whildenstrank, who stole the statue and retreated to his lair in the middle of a nearby glacier. The PCs encountered the remaining giants, and then set off westward toward the dragon's lair. They traveled across the flat part of the glacier, encountering the frost giant ranger Velg the Dragon Tamer, as well as some burrowing bulettes. Then they braved the hazards of frost worms and remorhaz in the Ice Canyons: a maze of twisting passageways surrounding the black spire of rock that the dragon calls home. The PCs now stand at the edge of an open space, looking at the towering edifice in front of them.